What Britons Really Think of KSA?

Local Editor

UK nationals consider Russia, China and Turkey to be closer allies than Saudi Arabia, according to a new poll revealing the British people maintain a dim view of the Middle Eastern kingdom.

Although British politicians and diplomats remain quiet over Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses, including the recent controversial execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the general public are less keen on the alliance, with 37% saying they think the country is "unfriendly".

Relatively, the YouGov poll asked members of the public to rank 10 countries on their human rights records and whether or not Britain should be an enemy or an ally of that nation.

As France and Germany ranked highly considered both an ally and a country with good human rights, Saudi Arabia was among the worst performing on the list.

However, while Saudi is officially considered Britain's closest ally in the Middle East, 39% said the country should be thought of as an enemy state. Its reputation for human rights was even worse, with 80% of people saying they had a "bad" record.

Besides, the conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank continue to take their toll of the British public's view on the "Israeli" entity, with 25% of people saying the country should be considered an enemy state and 54% ranking them as having a bad human rights record.

For its part, Turkey fares equally poorly with 57% criticizing their human rights record and 26% saying the UK should consider them our enemy. But despite China's appalling human rights record, which 78% of people described as "bad", 63% of the general public still consider the Asian nation a key ally.

Source: The Independent, Edited by website team